AND A FINE DAY TO YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Hard to imagine right at the moment, but today's the day we turn the corner. Last night's rain is moving out quickly, and the skies will clear this morning. By midday, great weather should be settling in and temps will be rising -- 70s by afternoon. Plenty of sunshine and blue skies before the end of the day. Then high pressure takes hold, and it'll be beautiful through the weekend, if not beyond. About time, eh?The highways are going to get messy out there next year. Reconstruction of the I-89 bridges over the Connecticut is slated to start this coming winter and last -- get this -- until summer 2024. It'll include a month sometime in 2020 or 2021 of closing the northbound bridge and detouring traffic off Exit 20, through old West Leb and WRJ, onto I-91 and then back to 89. There's other work on tap for next year that could also make Leb really fun to drive through. And then let's not forget the proposed Sykes/Rt. 5 roundabout construction in WRJ. And you thought some rain and cold put you in a bad mood. (VN, subscription reqd)Upper Valley group on FB tops 14,000 members. Chris Healy, who started the Facebook group 12 years ago and still runs it, announced it yesterday evening. For comparison, the largest of the listservs, the Upper Valley List, has 8,300 members. Part of the group's success stems from Healy's approach: He wants it to be a place where Upper Valley-ites talk to one another. "I this is a perfect forum for issues that are central to the upper valley to be discussed, but disrespectful comments will be deleted regardless of their perspective. Telling others what they MUST believe or do doesn't respect their opinion," he writes. If you're curious about how Ben Kilham's bear center in Lyme winds up with so many orphaned cubs, here's a story for you. It comes from over by Squam and Lake Winnipesaukee, where Center Harbor police officer Nicki Faro was patrolling last week when she saw a lone bear cub, with no adult. Someone called to say they'd found an adult female bear carcass in the woods. With Fish & Game's help, the cub was captured and taken to Lyme. Returning home, Faro found a second cub -- in her yard; she took it to Lyme, too. Then it turned out there were two more, and on Monday she captured the third. And took it to Lyme. The fourth cub is still at large.VN art critic Nicola Smith is up with her review of the new Hood. "This isn’t merely a re-arranging and updating of the collections, or a cosmetic improvement, it is a...vigorous redefinition of the museum’s role," she writes. In particular, she's taken with the way the museum sets out its holdings -- a gallery of works by Nigerian, Iranian, and American artists, for example. "It’s the juxtapositions and unexpected symmetries that excite thought, not the same old, same old plod through an art history textbook." (VN, sub still reqd)Judge declares NH's school funding approach unconstitutional. Ruling in a case brought by Peterborough's ConVal and other districts, Cheshire County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff said yesterday that the calculation for the amount the state sends to each district is inadequate and inequitable. "Labels aside, we are simply unable to fathom a legitimate governmental purpose to justify the gross inequities in educational opportunities evident from the record,” he wrote. The AG's office was still digesting the ruling last night.NHPR is gearing up for 2020 primary coverage and wants your thoughts on how to cover things. The news org went up with a post yesterday asking, "What issues do you want to hear about? What kinds of stories would help you make an informed choice? What about this campaign would you rather we didn't cover?" To get at all this, they're asking listeners to take a survey that, they say, will help shape newsroom decisions. Parkland, FL student David Hogg meets with NH high school students on organizing tour. Hogg, who came into the national spotlight after the 2018 school shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS, was in Manchester to help build student activism around gun safety ahead of the 2020 elections. “We have to be the last generation that has to go through a lockdown drill,” he said. “If we aren't, then we failed our future children.”Meanwhille, in Montpelier, a 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases is awaiting gubernatorial action. The measure, which passed the VT legislature, arrived on Gov. Phil Scott's desk Tuesday. He has five days to decide whether to sign it, veto it, or let it pass without his signature. Scott says that before deciding, he wants Health Department backing for supporters' insistence that a cooling-off period would help reduce suicide rates. VT's 2020 Democratic gubernatorial field may be starting to take shape. VTDigger is out with a piece asserting that the state's attorney general, TJ Donovan, and its lieutenant governor, David Zuckerman, are both eyeing runs, though both are also coy about the possibility. The ultimate target, of course, would be GOP Gov. Phil Scott. “I think 2020 in Vermont is going to not be a good year to have an R after your name,” says a party insider. Which suggests that the Dem field has a long way to go before it's settled.Just in time for summer, the Boston Herald is out with a short listing of the big New England beer festivals. There's the South Shore Solstice Fest in MA, the New England Brewfest over at Loon Mountain in NH, the ME Brewer's Guild festival in South Portland, and Okemo's Hops in the Hills in VT. What better way to tour the region?And speaking of beer, it turns out there's an actual internationally recognized Vermont style. According to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), one of the hot beer trends to watch this summer is hazy brews, which get their look from the late addition of hops. This, it seems, is how VT craft brewers have made their name. Other trends just to our north: lagers, low-gluten, ciders, and "gypsy" brewers, who travel to make beer at different breweries.SO WHAT'CHA DOIN' TONIGHT?You could take in Myra Flynn's "Summer of Soul" tour as it comes through First Branch/Upper Pass in South Royalton. Half African American, half Irish, Flynn grew up in Vermont and now spends half her year here and half in LA. She's a hard-working, constantly evolving singer-songwriter with serious pipes and equal parts playfulness and soulfulness. Dinner from 7-8 if you want it, then show starts at 8. The Mavericks will be at the Lebanon Opera House tonight. They can do pretty much everything: Tex-Mex, Cuban bolero, reggae, calypso, country, Latin country, garage rock, swing -- "genre-defying" doesn't even do them justice. Lead singer Raul Malo, guitarist Eddie Perez, a thumping piano player in Jerry Dale McFadden, Paul Deakin's fiery rhythm, accordion, horns... it'll be an up-and-out-of-your-seats night. Starts at 7:30. Get dinner beforehand at the Leb Farmers Market, amble across the street, what could be better?Enjoy your day. See you tomorrow.
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